Cochran withdraws from Senior Open Championship

Russ Cochran
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Associated Press
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By Jim McCabe

Saturday, July 21, 2012

LYTHAM ST. ANNES, England –- Russ Cochran has toured Royal Lytham & St. Annes Golf Club, only not as planned. Instead of being a competitor, he was a spectator, and while he has loved the view of the 141st Open Championship, he knows it would have been better from inside the ropes.

So he’d love to earn another spot into the field?

Cochran, 53, smiled, and nodded his head. “Guess I’m going to have to win the Senior Open another time,” he said.

Alas, that won’t happen this year because Cochran as he left the third round of Saturday’s Open Championship confirmed that he had withdrawn from this week’s Senior Open at Turnberry in Scotland.

“I can’t play. Just can’t do it,” Cochran said.

For the first time in his life, Cochran said he’s having back problems and it came on with very little warning. He withdrew from the U.S. Senior Open after two rounds, but still made the trip to England in hopes of playing in Open Championship, for which he was exempt thanks to winning last year’s Senior Open Championship.

But Cochran said he only played 12 Wednesday and deemed himself unfit to play.

“They said it’s an intercostal muscle strain,” Cochran said. “It goes across the back of the ribs. Doctors told me to let it go, to give myself plenty of time and it will be fine.”

In other words, give it rest, and that will start by skipping his title defense.

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Jack Nicklaus and his son, Jack II, shot a 5-under 67 as a team during the first round of the PNC Father/Son Challenge.
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Associated Press
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PGA of America
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